Zadig ou la destinee

Another great story by Voltaire, 4/5 stars.

Candide ou l'optimisme

This play or the story summary version I read on the plane today is fantastic! I was laughing frequently all during the flight. 5/5 stars.

--

mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Kaffir Boy

My daughter must read this book for her class at school so I wanted to see if the pornography law suit against school districts had merit.  The beginning is quite horrific.  And I suspect conditions in the region have not changed much since the book was published, despite the fact that Apartheid has been abolished.  The book is not well written; it is dated, extremely melodramatic, but important for the historical context.  2/5 stars

--

mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

max the demon vs entropy of doom

It's a graphic novel (comic book) to make thermodynamics approachable by non-physics majors.

I sponsored the kickstarter project because I selfishly want to buy and read the graphic novel.

The kickstarter page is here:

http://kck.st/2sL36PG

7/24 - 7/26/17 Photo updates

Gabriella's camera "saw Internet" when it came home to our house and uploaded the rest of the photos I had not secured previously, so we have updates to a few of the albums as well as photos from the trip home

She captured some amazing pictures out of the window of our plane rides, Zurich, Los Angeles, Seattle.

• Monday 7/24/2017:  Flights home

Hunkelers Geheimnis

The flight from Zurich to LAX had a good selection of audio programming​ and I listened to this excellent radio play.  The story, characters, acting, etc. were very good. 4/5 stars.

Microcosmos: Le people de cosmos

Fantastic documentary about bugs in the meadow.  Great close-up footage. 4/5 stars.

--

mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Fwd: The rise and fall of D.O.D.O

I really like Neal Stephenson's books and also enjoyed his collaboration _Cobweb_.  This collaboration is not as good but is still ok. Time travel stories cannot be self-consistent always make it extremely difficult for me to suspend disbelief. The characters are fun and the plot is ok. 3/5 stars.

--

mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

--

mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

7/19/17 - 7/24/17: Switzerland wrap-up

Individual Daily Photo Albums

• Wednesday 7/19/2017: Speed boating Lake Zurich
• Thursday 7/20/2017: Walk around Lake Zurich and downtown
• Friday 7/21/2017: Wup Kusnacht, Pfannensteig
• Saturday 7/22/2017: Berner Oberland, Glacier snow, Barracks
• Sunday 7/23/2017: Berner Oberland, Bern, Laszlow visit in Muri   Album-2
• Monday 7/24/2017: flight home

I have fallen behind in keeping a daily update.  I blame Google blogger :-), that now rejects email originating from outside the USA to create blog posts :-(.

Wednesday 7/19 was a low-key hanging-out day where I finished editing my and my subordinates research papers, as well as the first draft of a conference presentation I am giving on 8/2.  We were on Lake Zurich speed boating for a short time and I was able to spend a few hours hiking the mountains above Herrliberg before a late dinner.

Thursday 7/20 called for rain and thunderstorms so we planned to play paintball but the paintball center was closed (and it was not raining) so we walked around lake Zurich.

Friday 7/21 I was up early and went on a 3-hour hike, then the family drove up to an old castle ruin on Wup and we hiked the region of the nearby river where my nephew tried (and failed) to shoot fish with his hunting bow.

On Saturday 7/22 we packed up two cars and 11 of us drove up to the Sustenpass (Swiss Alps near Bern) where we hiked mountain lakes, a glacier, played in the snow, and then slept in a military barrack with 12 beds all connected and crammed into a tiny room.  It was quite horrible as one might imagine because of snoring and other sounds that kept some of us awake most of the night.

Sunday 7/23 we got an early start and visited a cousin in Muri (very close to Bern).  The 15 of us had a great discussion, then hiked up the Gurt mountain and finally had a wonderful Italian dinner in downtown Bern before heading back to Herrliberg.

There was a bit of a panic when we discovered that Iceland Air (a second time) kicked us off our flight and did not contact us.  When I called, waited 71 minutes on hold, they realized their mistake and asked if we would fly Tuesday 7/25 since the flights were all full.   Instead were re-accommodated on another Swiss flight via LAX on Monday 7/25.  Final arrangements were made at 1:00 AM Monday for the Monday flight, ouch.

Monday 7/24 we flew home.

7/18/2017: Lichtenstein, Chaeserrugg

Photos

We drove (for a few hours) to Chaeserrugg today, where we took the incline and a cable car to the top of the mountain and then hiked the ridge line at the top.  Despite the haze and fog that rolled in and out it worked out well and we had some spectacular views.

On the drive back we stopped at a bird sanctuary in Lichtenstein.

We had a fantastic (but late) dinner at home in Herrliberg.

Photos